


baby, isn't it crazy (that we are born only to die)

by lazyfish



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, background mackelena, shameless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25885717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: The only thing wrong with Bobbi’s second wedding is that the people she loves aren’t here to see it - until they are.
Relationships: Lance Hunter/Bobbi Morse
Comments: 25
Kudos: 87
Collections: MCU Kink Bingo Round 5





	baby, isn't it crazy (that we are born only to die)

“Hunter?” Bobbi ducked into the room at the back of the barn Hunter was supposedly getting ready in. She knew it didn’t take him that long to get into a suit, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t think maybe he’d made a run for it.

“You’re not supposed to see the bride on the wedding day, love,” Hunter said, not turning around despite hearing the door opening. “I’m not looking,” he added stubbornly.

“Fine,” Bobbi said, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s not like there’s anyone else for you to see, though.” Hunter had insisted on doing their wedding the right way the second time around, with a fancy venue and a white dress, but Bobbi didn’t see the point. They’d kept everyone at arm’s length since they were disavowed, which meant they had acquaintances to invite to the wedding, not friends. In the end they hadn’t invited anyone at all - the workers at their venue were serving as their witnesses.

It wasn’t a bad day; the barn they were getting married in was spacious and beautiful even without the decorations that would normally accompany a wedding. The August afternoon was warm but not hot, even in the long lace sleeves of her wedding dress. Bobbi picked at the cuff of one sleeve absently, unsure of what else she could do but stand there and wait with Hunter. Her other choice was to stand in her own dressing room and wait alone, which wasn’t preferable.

“You alright, love?” Hunter asked, reaching his arm back, palm up. Bobbi walked over and slid her hand into his.

“This isn’t exactly how I thought this would go,” she murmured. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help the sadness that kept creeping in at every corner. She was marrying the man she loved, but all she could think about were the people who wouldn’t get to see it.

“At least there aren’t ninjas at this one, eh?” Hunter asked, squeezing her hand. Even if he wouldn’t say it, she knew he was feeling the hole, too. The last wedding they’d almost had was just bait for the order of martial artists they’d been trying to lure out from the shadows, but even then Hunter had gotten a little teary-eyed. When they’d left, they hadn’t been thinking about all the life stretched in front of them - everything they’d miss with the team, and everything the team would miss with them.

She would’ve made the same choice, of course. She’d make the same choice a thousand times if it meant keeping the rest of them safe, but Bobbi had almost allowed herself to believe in a future with the team. She had almost let herself think of growing old as friends, of sharing life together in a way she hadn’t been able to share with anyone before. Only almost, though, because all of those dreams had been snatched before she let them fully form. Maybe it was easier that way, but some days Bobbi thought having full-fledged dreams would have at least made them easier to mourn. Mourning half an imagined life didn’t work - would never work - so she just had to carry it.

“You ready?” Hunter asked, releasing her hand. 

Bobbi nodded before realizing he couldn’t see her, then said, “Yes.” It wasn’t the getting married part she wasn’t ready for.

“Hop to it, then.” Hunter shooed her out of the room, still not turning to look at her. Bobbi sighed before exiting the barn and walking around to the front entrance, which also served as the head of the aisle she would be walking down, alone. She hiked her dress up so it wouldn’t get grass-stained and watched her feet so she didn’t accidentally step into something unsavory, and only looked up when she had reached her destination.

“Mack?” Her voice cracked when his name left her mouth and Bobbi stood, frozen, as she looked her oldest friend in the face.

“Hi, Barbara.”

“What - what are you doing here!?” she asked, taking an instinctive step backwards. She wasn’t supposed to be seen with him, with any of them. They’d be in danger if she did that, and Bobbi _couldn’t_ be the reason the team got hurt.

“Hey, hey.” He closed the distance between them, wrapping her into a bear hug. Bobbi tensed for a moment before finally relaxing into him. Mack was _here_. Mack was here to walk her down the aisle and she was going to _kill_ Hunter and -

“I couldn’t miss this. None of us could.”

“None of -?” Bobbi drew back from Mack, covering her mouth as she struggled to hold in the tears. “They’re here?” Everyone she had just been wishing for - Daisy, Jemma, May, Coulson, Fitz - they were there, on the other side of the barn door?

“Yeah, Barbara. They’re all here.”

“But - _how_?”

“To make a long story short, I’m Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. now, which means no one can tell me I can’t come to my best friends’ wedding,” Mack said with a smile. “Hunter got in touch when you started planning and I did the rest.”

“I - congratulations?” Bobbi stuttered, unsure of what else to say. If Mack was director, what had happened to Coulson? And how the hell had Hunter gotten in touch in the first place when they had both promised a total communications blackout?

“I think that’s my line,” Mack said. “Ready?” He offered his arm to her and Bobbi realized, belatedly, that the wedding couldn’t start until she began the walk. She was the bride, after all.

Bobbi wrapped her hand around Mack’s arm and allowed him to swing open the grand door to the barn. Inside where there previously hadn’t been any sitting space was now a cluster of metal folding chairs, and sitting on those chairs…

Daisy waved when Bobbi passed her, and Bobbi sniffled before giving a weak wave in return. She almost didn’t notice when she had reached the end of the aisle because she was so busy looking over her shoulder, drinking in the sight of her friends.

Mack put her hand in Hunter’s and Bobbi gave him a watery smile before turning to her ex- and soon-to-be-husband. 

“Did you like the surprise?” Hunter asked, picture-perfect innocence written on his face.

“We don’t even have cake to feed them,” Bobbi said, which Hunter knew meant _of course, you idiot_.

The officiant cleared his throat and Hunter nodded. The service was beginning.

\---

“You look so beautiful!” Daisy said, practically throwing herself into Bobbi’s waiting arms. Bobbi wrapped the younger woman in a tight hug, still not sure she wasn’t dreaming the whole thing. The wedding had felt real, promising to love Hunter for the rest of her life felt real - but as soon as she looked out at their tiny audience her heart fluttered in her chest and she swore her mind must’ve been playing tricks on her.

“Thank you,” Bobbi said when she released Daisy from the hug. “I didn’t understand why Hunter was so insistent I have a fancy dress and everything when it was just going to be the two of us but I guess -”

“I can still surprise you, even after all these years?” Hunter finished, stepping next to Bobbi and sliding an arm around her waist. “Yes, yes I can.”

“Hi, Hunter,” Daisy said with a laugh. “Cool encryption on the messages you sent, by the way. Where’d you learn that?”

“Here or there,” Hunter answered vaguely. “One of us had to become computer literate and this one still uses Internet Explorer so…”

“Please tell me he’s kidding.”

“I’m going to go talk to Jemma,” Bobbi said, pressing a kiss to Hunter’s cheek before slipping away.

“Bobbi!” Daisy called after her. Luckily, Hunter seemed to have gotten the hint to keep her engaged in conversation. The man who had been sitting next to Daisy, the only one of the attendees Bobbi didn’t recognize, slid up next to her as Bobbi was walking away, and it seemed like he was doing a fine job of distracting her, too. Bobbi would get the story on that when she did her second rounds through the guests, she was sure.

Despite saying she had to go see Jemma, it was actually Mack’s arms that Bobbi found herself in once again. Now that the shock of seeing him had worn off she could give him a proper hug, the kind she had been missing in the years since she’d left. He was warm and he still used the same cologne and Bobbi really, really didn’t want to let go of him. While she was hugging Mack, she could almost pretend nothing had changed.

“Thank you. For making all this happen,” Bobbi said, wiping at her eyes with the lace of her sleeves when she withdrew. She was lucky she had worn smudge-proof makeup. Hunter’s vows had already made her cry once today but she had a feeling there would be more tears, especially when it was time to say goodbye again.

“You really should be thanking your husband,” Mack answered, the words sugar-sweet on his lips. Her _husband_. She was never going to get sick of hearing that word without the ex- preceding it. “He was the one who figured out all the logistics for me.”

“He loves you,” the woman standing beside Mack commented.

“You must be Elena,” Bobbi said, reaching out her hand. They had crossed paths once before, right before she and Hunter had been disavowed, but that was so long ago that only an echo of a memory was left for Bobbi to hold onto. She knew Elena was important to Mack, thanks to Hunter’s brief meeting with Fitz, but it was still so strange to be meeting the woman her best friend loved for the first time properly.

“Yes. I’ve heard a lot about you,” Elena said with a smile.

“All of it bad, I hope.” Bobbi grinned back.

“She’s heard what she needed,” Mack answered vaguely.

“Which means you haven’t told her any of the actually _good_ stories,” Bobbi surmised. All of the good stories involved the three of them in unflattering situations and otherwise making stupid decisions. 

“Pleading the fifth,” Mack said smoothly. So that was a yes.

“Remind me to write you down the worst ones,” Bobbi told Elena. She tried not to wince at her own reminder that this was just for today, and soon everything would go back to the way it was before - them at S.H.I.E.L.D., and her alone with Hunter.

Speaking of Hunter…

“What are you doing?” she asked when he walked into the barn carrying a black plastic container.

“You said we needed cake, so I got cake.”

“How did you get cake out here in less than ten minutes?” Bobbi asked him, closing the distance between them so she could peer at the cake he was holding. She stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of it, then burst into laughter.

“Happy birthday?” she read. “ _Happy birthday_?”

“If I had bought a proper wedding cake you would have never believed it was just going to be the two of us!” Hunter defended. “Besides, it’s written in your favorite color.”

“You are _so_ dumb.” 

“Love you too, Bob.”

\---

“You could come back with us,” Mack said softly, offering Bobbi a napkin to wipe the blue frosting off the corner of her mouth. The frosting had managed to catch on the ends of her sleeves, so every time she looked back on the dress hanging in her closet Bobbi would remember this moment - blue lace and all.

“We could?” she asked.

“I’ve got a feeling you two aren’t really wanting to do field work anyways,” Mack said. “We miss you.” He pressed his lips together, corners of his mouth tightening. “ _I_ miss you.”

“I’d have to talk to Hunter about it,” Bobbi said, glancing over to where her husband was deep in conversation with Fitz and Jemma. Three hours ago she had been thinking about how much she regretted them not being there, and now she was having different regrets - hearing how much of everyone’s lives she had missed and regretting she’d never get those years back, no matter how hard they tried.

“I know you would,” Mack said. “But the invitation’s open. S.H.I.E.L.D. is different than when you left.”

“I wouldn’t want to be the reason it all comes crashing down,” Bobbi admitted after a moment. “I know there’s no one watching us anymore but…”

“But you built a whole life outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. And I’m glad you did.” Mack took her hand in his. “And I’m glad you did," he repeated when she looked dubious. “You deserve that. But I’m a little bit selfish and I want you to be there for what comes next.”

“What comes next?” Bobbi prompted.

“I don’t know. But I want you to be there,” Mack repeated.

“And I want to be there.”

“Talk to Hunter.” Mack let go of her hand. “See where he’s at.”

\---

Really, she didn’t need to talk to Lance to know what he was thinking. He wouldn’t have orchestrated this whole scheme if he didn’t want to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D., at least a little bit. He knew Mack just as well as Bobbi did, and he knew Mack wouldn’t let them go again - and Bobbi wouldn't let Mack go, either.

“So,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him. It felt strange to have this conversation while their friends were still nearby, but their little corner of the barn was private enough, and no one was going to begrudge newlyweds a bit of alone time at their own wedding.

“So,” he echoed back, pulling her close to him.

“I want to go home, Hunter,” she whispered.

“And I want to get you there.”

“I don’t…” She didn’t know what to say, or what to do. In some ways it would be easier to continue pining after a life she’d never have, instead of chasing that life and finding maybe it wasn’t everything she’d hoped for. Maybe things would be different now, since Fitz and Jemma had quit S.H.I.E.L.D. and Coulson was gone and May’s job had changed immensely. Everyone had changed, and oddly, it was her and Hunter who had stayed mostly the same.

“We never found a purpose out here on our own,” Hunter told her, voice oozing all the gentleness she didn’t deserve. He was right, of course; they had looked but never found. Doing odd jobs for money wasn’t a purpose, not the way S.H.I.E.L.D. was. They had considered fostering, but that was a bit hard while they still technically had government agencies looking for them. There was nothing they could do but survive, and Bobbi had to believe her life was supposed to be about more than just survival. She had to have been born to do more than die.

“I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“I’m fine without a purpose, if I’ve got you,” he whispered, tracing the pattern of the lace on the back of her dress. “But I know you’re not the same way, and that’s why I love you.”

Bobbi dropped her head against his shoulder, and Hunter began to sway them back and forth like they were dancing again. Their friends had gotten to watch them _dance_ , and Bobbi still couldn’t quite breathe when she thought about it.

Would it be enough to just have today? Would it be enough to just have these memories, the hundred photographs she’d taken, the lace of the dress she was wearing?

No. No, of course it wouldn’t.

“Would you try?” she asked.

“For you, love? There’s nothing I wouldn’t try.”


End file.
